The Hockey Abbott budget is the most nasty cruel budget that I have ever seen. They have turned Universities into money pits that only the wealthy can really afford,they have attacked apprenticeships by offering a loan up to $20.000 which sounds good but now the apprentices not only have to buy their tools for the trade out of it they have to also cover their Tafe fees as well which the government used to pay for ! they are going to link pensions to CPI rises, costing pensioners over a $100 per fortnight in the longer term of the budget,they are going to cause undue hardship on the unemployed because of there six month delay before receiving dole payments, there is going to be an increase in the homeless,bankruptcies,crime and depression amongst these people and we can expect to have beggars on the street with this little gem !They are clamping down on the Disabled increased the pension age and taken tax breaks away from families with children,increased petrol excise, taken expenditure away from our hospitals and our schools,$7 co payments for medicare,taken away dependent spouse rebate etc etc. Meanwhile they have the Audacity to try to convince you that you will benefit from all of this ? Do they think that the Australian public are feeble minded enough to believe what they spin ? Although we did fall for Abbott's "NO CHANGES" and "NO BLAME" pre election campaign does he really think he can do it ad infinitum ? Mr Abbott you are trying to destroy Social Justice in Australia by deception and manipulation of the public,we are not pawns for you to sacrifice to save the knights Bishops Queens and Kings of the Australian elite ! We are what makes Australia great we are its people ! The very same ones that gave you power and the very same ones who will take it away !

trap/quote..<<>.The very same ones that gave you power
and the very same ones...who will take it away !>>

are the self same ones telling joe and tony...what they now want done

just/like them what wanted juliar/to do..
when her betters told her what they want her to do.

thing is/those running the 2 party scam/need us in the streets/angry
really..they do..see they sent us broke/much more than we are yet aware/of.

the budget is just cleaning up the paperwork/in the royal mint/to hide the theft/names..who stole the gold[leased..the physical gold/sold it...

they want us in the streets/so they get war powers.
unmentioned is us smokers..each paying an extra 3000 in taxes/thanks be to gill/lard..and rocks-on..and their indexed increases/like a thief in the night.

as for the students..how many are aussie..
seems we are educating the elites/from other lands/who go home with work ethic/plus our best ideas..for free...its this lie/that we all share the pain..[yes only the poor/share/the pain]

but thats what the boss wanted.

Trapdiocan – Although the points you raise are relevant, the budget is a symptom, not the problem.

No one party has a monopoly on solutions to our current and ongoing dilemma, yet we flip flop backwards and forward from one minority government then back to the other. When a government changes the new one gets rid of a lot of the previous governments bad policies as well as many good ones. They then install their good ones as well as their bad ones. In both scenarios the collective us pay. The burden is never proportionately shared however.

Perhaps the voters are feeble minded because they continue to play the game. How many voters are aware that a minority of 45.55% of them wanted the current government? How many question why the current government controls a disproportionate 60% of seats in the house of non-representatives?

Perhaps Australians are feeble minded as they don’t seem to realise that government is the collective them?

Perhaps Australians are feeble minded because they think government funded is free?

We need as Australians, to have a social contract with each other where we look after the collective us not exploit it. As an individual Australian we should aim to be the best we can be and not to expect more than need or take more than our share.

Not only is the budget diabolical, but the Abbott govt has snookered itself.

Good article - Waleed Aly

http://m.theage.com.au/comment/no-way-tony-abbott-can-now-budget-for-a-second-term-20140521-zrjie.html

These arguments always seem one-sided to me. Usually adopted by the ones that expect someone else to pay because they earn more. They never seem to come up with an alternative. Where DOES the money come from to pay all the thing that we all want ?

No taxation system is perfect and there are always times when people feel it has treated them unfairly. I am having to pay extra like everyone else on a (albeit low) self funded income. I just feel it is my duty to contribute, although I am disgusted at the previous waste of money

Playing the "devil's advocate" there are some statistics here...

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/no-the-rich-dont-pay-a-fair-share-of-tax-they-pay-all-of-it/story-e6frgd0x-1226841174461

which indicate an alternative view that the wealthy already pay a great deal more than most in taxation.

This budget isn't an economic statement - it's an ideological one.

It's about lowering the tax burden for one group and placing it onto another less deserving one and the redistribution of wealth upwards.

When it comes to sharing the "heavy lifting", those who pay that additional levy have already been compensated by the restoration of their over-generous Superannuation benefits at the expense of those of lesser means. There can't be many people earning $200K pa who get paid weekly like typical PAYG employees and don't have some sort of Trust arrangements in place.

That petrol excise may seem to be a small amount now but will increase significantly over time and how long before the $7 Medicare tax increases?

Those under 30 who have to survive 6 monthly periods of unemployment without any assistance at all will be the biggest social problem. Increasing homelessness and suicide rates are inevitable.

It's like a return to the failed Thatcher/Reagan neo-conservative policies - but worse.